Lots of great information here,
Sinera. Like many who posted above, discernment proved a useful tool to realize that this was another site that had trouble with objectivity on some subjects, such as energy medicine.
What you point out is an additional element of actively editing in/out information with a specific intent. This is not skepticism as I know the term.
When I look at Wikepedia's definition of skepticism, the first definition posted is one that corresponds pretty well to what you talk about:
"
Skepticism (
American English) or
scepticism (
British English,
Australian English, and
Canadian English) is generally any questioning attitude or
doubt towards one or more items of putative knowledge or belief.
[1][2] It is often directed at domains, such as the
supernatural, morality (
moral skepticism), religion (skepticism about the existence of God), or knowledge (skepticism about the possibility of knowledge, or of certainty).
[3] Formally, skepticism as a topic occurs in the context of philosophy, particularly
epistemology, although it can be applied to any topic such as politics, religion, and pseudoscience. "
- The part about having a questioning attitude or doubt I find unsurprising. What caught my attention is specifically calling out the supernatural, morality, religion and knowledge.
Certainly, no definition I know of states that a skeptic is unable or unwilling to research or look into subjects which the skeptic doubts. That would usually be termed something like 'close mindedness' and every self respecting skeptic I know would consider such an attitude to be one that 'gives skeptics everywhere a bad name'. Calling out specific topics, like the supernatural, as natural objects of skepticism clarifies that these are, in the opinion of the writer of the article/editors/whoever is in charge of content a subject on which the writers/etc consider the topic closed/the answer 'obvious'.
However, in the same article, a bit lower down, are some more standard definitions of skepticism, including these:
"In ordinary usage, skepticism (US) or scepticism (UK) (
Greek: 'σκέπτομαι'
skeptomai, to search, to think about or look for; see also
spelling differences) can refer to:
- an attitude of doubt or a disposition to incredulity either in general or toward a particular object;
- the doctrine that true knowledge or some particular knowledge is uncertain;
- the method of suspended judgment, systematic doubt, or criticism that is characteristic of skeptics (Merriam–Webster).
In
philosophy, skepticism can refer to:
- a mode of inquiry that emphasizes critical scrutiny, caution, and intellectual rigor;
- a method of obtaining knowledge through systematic doubt and continual testing;
- a set of claims about the limitations of human knowledge and the proper response to such limitations."
These definitions emphasize an attitude of (systematic) doubt, incredulity, uncertainty, suspended judgment, criticism, critical scrutiny, caution, intellectual rigor, continual testing and acknowledgement of the limitations of human knowledge. When these are applied to information coming in on any topic, great discussion results, in my experience.